Percy and the Gods Read the PJO Series: The Lightning Thief
by Mila-is-a-bookworm-101
Summary: Percy and the gang read the PJO series with the Gods! PercyxAnnabeth and maybe some JasonxPiper. Rated T for some swearing in the future chapters. Takes place after the HOO Series and Percy and Annabeth came back from Tatarus. Some characters aren't in this story, so if you say a character is missing, there isn't. First story to ever write.
1. Prolouge

Hey guys! This is my first fanfic so enjoy! Also, this takes place after the HOO series and Percy and Annabeth came back from Tartarus.

Disclaimer: I don't own the PJO or the HOO series, if I did, Percy Jackson would never end.

* * *

Percy Jackson & Friends Read "The Lightning Thief"

Chapter 1:

Nico, Leo, and the Stolls were all crouching underneath the window of the Demeter cabin. They were bored, so they decided to pull a prank on Katie Gardner. They were watching through the window, hoping they didn't get caught. "She's going in." Leo whispered and they all got quiet. Katie was getting ready to take a shower and when she went through the bathroom door _SPLAT! _Contents of God knows what fell over her, covering her from head to toe. She heard muffled laughing coming from outside the window. The boys were getting ready to leave when they heard a snap and plants all around them were grabbing their feet. They tried moving, but the plants wouldn't budge. They braced for what was gonna happen next. Katie, though, opened the window to find, in their place, a gold-silver dust surrounding the plants.

* * *

Rachel was in the Big House when Chiron came to her. "Hello, Rachel. Apollo wanted me to give you this." Chiron handed her a letter. "Don't open it until you get there." Chiron said and left. _What did he mean by that? _Rachel thought. Just as she finished that thought, a grey fog surrounded her and took her away with the letter.

* * *

Grover was wandering through the forests of Canada, when he heard a growl. he slowly turned around and was attacked by a boar. Luckily, he got out of the way, but he hit his head on a log and crumpled to the floor. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the boar lifting him up on its back and run of into the forest.

* * *

Thalia was on a mission for Artemis. She was practicing her skills of archery when she a sweet scent came to her. It reminded her of all types of candy and sweets. She only realized she was in a trance when her knees gave way and she fell into a pink portal.

* * *

Jason and Piper were in the arena at Camp Half-Blood fighting each other. Jason with his sword and Piper with her dagger. Piper was winning, but then Jason swung, knocked her off her feet and she was suddenly on the ground with Jason kneeling over her with a sword at her throat. "I think I win." Jason said happily. Then he leaned down for a kiss, but Piper moved just in time for him to kiss the ground. While laughing, she managed to get herself and Jason back up and she gave him a hug. When they both pulled back they couldn't see each other. They only saw blackness and felt themselves being lift up in the air and floating to who knows where.

* * *

Percy and Annabeth were walking by the lake at Camp on a date. Percy was wearing nothing but swim shorts and Annabeth was wearing a two-piece swimsuit while wearing Percy's T-shirt, which was a couple sizes too big. They were laughing and fooling around when out of the blue (A/N: See what I did there? Percy and blue...no okay sorry I wasted your time) Percy snatched up Annabeth and ran to the water. "Put me down, Seaweed Brain!" She yelled. "In your dreams, Wise Girl." He chuckled. Before he even got to the water, she kicked him and he fell along with her, Annabeth on top of Percy. They both pulled in for a kiss, but then they heard thunder and then the only saw a bright, white light and disappeared.

* * *

Everyone, with the exception of Annabeth and Percy, found themselves in the throne room with all the Gods and Goddesses, including Hades. "Who dares to come in the middle of our meeting!" Zeus bellowed. Thalia spoke up, "What do you mea- wait what year is it?" He told her. "Oh no," Leo groaned, "we time traveled back five years!" "Okay, calm down. First of all, why are we even here?" Piper asked. There was complete silence. Then, "I think I do." Rachel said. She took out the letter from her pocket and opened it. It read:

_Dear Everybody, _

_The Gods from the future decided to give you five books to read. _The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The last Olympian. _They are all about Percy Jackson on his adventures. Don't worry about the real world because we froze time. So, enjoy!_

_The Hottest Guy On The Planet,_

_Apollo_

"Wait a minute," Leo said, "I thought _I _was the hottest guy on the planet." He received a smack on the head.

"If we're reading about Percy, where is he?" Grover asked. Just as they finished that, Percy and Annabeth, both knocked out were lying in the middle of the Gods. Percy had no shirt on and Annabeth was still in her two-piece with his shirt on, lying on top of him. "Is that Annabeth?!" Athena asked. Aphrodite squealed, "They look so cute!" Just as she finished that statement, Annabeth slowly woke up. She stood up quickly and turned red at the sight of the Gods and tried to wake Percy up.

"Percy, wake up!" She screamed in his ear. He jumped up and also turned red at the sight of the Gods and receive a glare from Athena. "Look, Athena we were just o-" Thalia ran over and covered his mouth. "We've traveled five years in to the past, so Athena and the rest of the Gods don't know that you and Annabeth are dating." She whispered. Behind her, the Stolls were getting this on video. "Why doesn't _everybody_ get dressed and meet back here in ten minutes." They all left, certain people relieved that they were leaving.

They all came back. Percy and Annabeth knew what they were here for. They all sat in sofas, courtesy of the Gods. As they were all getting comfy, a table with five books appeared. "Who wants to read first?" Percy asked. The book with the title _The Lightning Thief _slowly floated towards him. "I guess you are, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said.

"Before we start, shouldn't we get to know who you are?" Athena said. "After the first chapter." Rachel said.

"Chapter one, **I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**..." Percy began.

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Please review and follow. Again, this is my first story so R&R.


	2. I Accidently Vaporize My Math Teacher

**Hey guys. I'm BAAAAAACCCKKKK. It's been such a long time since I've written :) Anyways, hope you enjoy and don't forget to R&R.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Me: Hey Percy get your butt over here!**

**Percy: What! I'm need to go meet Annabeth.**

**Me: Just say the freaking disclaimer then you can go.**

**Percy: Fine. Mila does not own the PJO or the HOO series. Rick does. *Thank Gods.***

**Me: I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that.**

**P.S. Important note at the bottom!**

* * *

**_I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher_**

**"I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" **Percy said.

"How do you _accidently _vaporize your pre-algebra teacher?" Jason asked.

Percy shrugged.

**Look, I didn't want to be half-blood.**

_Who does?_ all the demigods thought.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: **

Thalia started laughing. Everyone looked at her crazy.

"Percy giving advice. That's just _not _him. Besides, he sucks at giving advice."

Everyone laughed while Percy pouted.

**close book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"I stand corrected." She said.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous, It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter time before _they_ sent it too, and they'll come for you. **

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"You didn't" the Stolls said.

"Shut up" Percy replied.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"No really, your name is on the cover" Annabeth said.

"Oh be quiet, Wise Girl" He said.

Athena wondered what was up with them two having nicknames for each other.

** I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes!" all the demigods said.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"You even agreed with us. That's just low, Perce" Grover said.

Percy pouted while everyone laughed.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan-twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds like torture" Poseidon said.

**I know-it sounds like torture.**

_"Like father, like son."_ Nico thought, rolling his eyes.

** Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Chiron?" Annabeth whispered to Percy.

He just nodded.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"Sounds like Chiron..." Demeter said. All the other Gods agreed.

"50 drachmas that it's Chiron" Apollo said.

"Deal" Hermes replied.

** You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"So every other class puts you to sleep?" Annabeth asked.

He stayed silent.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for school bus, but I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that...Well, you get the idea.**

Complete silence.

Then, everyone started laughing. Some people even fell of their seats.

"Are you sure he isn't your kid?" Zeus asked Hermes.

"No, but I wish he was." Hermes said.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

"Like that's gonna happen." Piper said, rolling her eyes.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover **

"Now I'm in the story!" Grover exclaimed.

**in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"Ewwwww!" Piper and Aphrodite said.

"Hey Beauty Queen, your Aphrodite side is showing." Leo said, smirking.

"Shut up!" She said, giving him a smack on the head.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he was frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"So that what you think of me?!" Grover hissed at Percy.

"NO!I didn't think like that, I was...just describing you?" Percy said, though it came out like a question.

"Nice comeback." Rachel snorted. **(A/N:Does anyone know how to snort something? I always wanted to know...)**

"Hmmm..."

** He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"You satyrs gotta try not to almost blow your covers" Zeus said, looking directly at Grover.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly, brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had already threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, over even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares said

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

"Awwwwww" **(A/N:I think you know who said that)**

**"You're already on probation," He reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd I decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"And what a mess it was." Percy said.

"What do you mean?" Connor said.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big, echoey galleries, past marbles statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"I bet it was longer, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said.

"Well I'm sorry for not being that smart."

"At the time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nico said.

"I've been teaching him so he knows more stuff."

"You weren't supposed to tell anybody that." Percy complained

"Why do you guys do anything special we're not suppose to know about?" Travis said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Percy and Annabeth blushed, while everybody else laughed. Everybody except Athena, Poseidon, and Aphrodite. Athena and Poseidon suspected something was going on between them and Aphrodite was thinking about messing up their love life, even though she didn't know they were dating or Percy was the son of Poseidon.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a _stele, _for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the side. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Percy shuddered, remembering what had happened. Annabeth took his hand. Athena looked stunned, but then saw his expression and relaxed, guessing that something bad was gonna happen.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," ****real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Grover!"

"Sorry..."

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

**It came louder than I meant it to.**

"Whoops." Leo said.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Ughhh! He just _had _to pick that one, didn't he?" All the gods who were in his stomach groaned.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"GOD?!" Zeus said.

"I'm sure the boy will be corrected." Artemis said

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"See?"

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And… he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, ****and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"You just say 'eeew'? I'd like to see you in his stomach and that won't be the only way to describe how it was." Hera said.

"—**and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"Wow, a giant war and you simplify it into a mere paragraph?" Apollo said, trying not to laugh.

"Yep."

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job application, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"You have interesting thoughts Percy" Dionysus said, making everyone jump, since he doesn't usually pay attention.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Oh Chiron. Always trying to put everything on a happy note." Jason said.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go—intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen.**

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"About the Titans?" Leo said.

"**About the Titans?"**

"Oh no, Leo has Percyitis." Nico and the Stolls cried out.

"Really!" Percy said.

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Lucky." Everyone said.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I never made above a C- in my life. No—he didn't expected me to be **_**as good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one sad look at the stele, like he'd be at this girl's funeral.**

"Probably was..." Rachel muttered.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Zeus and Poseidon, what were fighting about this time?" Athena asked. All the gods were curious.

"This is in the future so don't ask." Poseidon said.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. **

"Is she one of your children, Hermes?" Aphrodite asked.

"Thank the Gods she isn't."

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that**_** school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wished he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Everyone laughed while Grover blushed.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and I thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad face she'd give me.**

"Wimp." Ares said.

"Oh shut up Ares." Surprisingly, it was Hephaestus who said this.

Before something else could go on, Percy continued.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch on Grover's lap.**

All the demigods clenched their fists, wanting now to beat her up.

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Last time I had Cheetos..." Thalia said, making everyone laugh.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went in blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Wave?" Zeus said, glaring at Poseidon, who in turn was looking everywhere but at him.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

"—**the water—"**

"—**like it grabbed her—"**

"YOU BROKE THE OATH! How could you?" Zeus bellowed, rising from his chair.

"Okay, so he is my son, but you wont touch a single hair on him or I swear on the River Styx I will send you to Tartarus." Poseidon said in a threatening voice.

Zeus sat back down.

"Dad, I'm here, aren't I? So that means I'm still alive. Calm down." Percy said.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester.**

"**Now, honey—"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment!" The Stolls and Hermes said. Hermes looked at them proudly while they smiled back.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"No shit, Sherlock." Thalia said.

Nico gasped and then said in a tattle-tale voice, "Thalia swore."

In return, he got shocked.

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I**_** pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But—"**

"**You—**_**will**_**—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"You don't want to be in the other side of that stare." Travis and Connor said, while everyone else greed. Percy just smiled.

All the Gods and Goddesses were surprised that a son of Poseidon could be like that.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

_Monster _Artemis thought.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring a the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"That wasn't the case was it?" Athena asked.

Percy nodded.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

"Empty gallery. That the signal for 'Get the hell out of there!'" Apollo said.

_Boys _Artemis thought, shaking her head.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

Everyone chuckled.

"Yeah, Kelp Head, that is the safe thing to do." Thalia said, sarcastically.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will sever less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

"Percy actually did that. Oh my Gods, we're so proud of you." Travis said, wiping a 'tear' from his eye.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer**_** from the Internet without ever reading the book and now the were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"I read the book anyways." Percy said

"Yeah. Cuz I made you." Annabeth said.

Aphrodite couldn't stop thinking of how cute of a couple they would make.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't..."**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"Hades, you sent a FURY after my son!" Poseidon yelled, glaring at Hades.

"Dad. Remember: I'm right here." Percy said.

He calmed down a bit.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament days.**

"Is that Riptide?" Annabeth whispered to Percy.

"Yep."

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Can she seriously drop the 'honey' thing, it's kinda creepy now." Leo said.

**And she flew straight at me.**

Poseidon paled.

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"And that came naturally?" Hera asked Percy.

He nodded.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hiss!**_

"Are we gonna hear a bunch of water references?" Rachel asked.

"Since he's a son of Poseidon, I wouldn't bet on it?" Demeter said.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

_Was it the Mist... _Athena thought.

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"No Percy, it was the magic mushrooms." Piper said, rolling her eyes.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Leo asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

"Second time it happened. It's getting more serious his Percyitis." Travis said to Connor.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"**Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Boys, get Grover a lying lesson ASAP." Hermes told his sons.

Travis took a mini notebook and whispered something to Connor.

Connor looked at Grover and said, "How's 2 o'clock?"

Everyone laughed while Grover ignored them.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling alright?"**

"Now _that's _how you lie" Apollo said.

"Who wants to go next?" Percy asked.

"I will." Hestia said, making everyone jump they have forgotten about her.

* * *

**A/N: I forgot to mention in the last chapter, if you noticed I put a specific god/goddess to kidnap each person, or couple. First person to guess who kidnap who correctly gets a prize. Well, not a prize but I'll dedicate the next chapter to you. :)**

**If you want to give me any questions, I'll answer them honestly. I swear on the River Styx. *Thunder Booms***

**What Hades is up with that thunder?! *Voice turns to a whisper* For me, it's just Zeus being dramatic, but don't tell him I said that.**

**So, yeah. R&R**


	3. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

**Ok so the first person to guess which god/goddess kidnapped which person all right was G.e.e.k.s and N.e.r.d.s! This chapter is dedicated to you! Go read their story its good!**

**Also, Katie is not in this story, neither is Hazel or Frank...yet. (I'm still deciding)**

**Disclaimer: (I saw this on someone's else story and I thought it was super cute!) I don't own Percy Jackson. Annabeth does.**

* * *

_**Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**_

Before Hestia could start reading, Zeus yelled, "Wait!"

Everyone looked at him.

"You said you would tell us who you were?"

Just as he said that, a note fell on his lap. he picked it up and read it:

_Dear Gods and Demigods,_

_For the sake of you finishing the books quicker, just say your name and who your parent is because a certain one would go eons telling you what he has done._

_Apollo_

_P.S. You cannot kill anyone or the future will be a big catastrophe._

"Okay than who will start then huh?" Demeter asked.

"I will. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." Percy said.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." Athena smiled at her daughter.

"Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild."

"Rachel Dare, Oracle of New Delphi."

"Sweet, I got me a new oracle." Apollo said, smiling at Rachel.

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and before you ask me how I came back, it will be revealed in the books." Looking at her father, who closed his mouth.

"Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades."

"You broke the oath!" Zeus said to Hades.

"No, I kept him in the casino for the last 70 years or so. How did you get out?" Hades asked his son.

"You'll see."

"Ironic how Hades was the only one who kept the oath?" Athena said.

"How is it ironic?" Zeus asked.

"Let's get to know the rest of their names, shall we?" Hermes interrupted.

As if on cue, Travis and Connor presented themselves.

"Travis and-"

"-Connor Stoll"

Together they said, "Son of the awesome Hermes!"

The demigods rolled their eyes.

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus." He smiled at his dad.

Piper spoke up. "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite." Aphrodite smiled at her daughter.

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter." Jason said, while taking Piper's hand behind his back. Only Aphrodite saw this, though, and decided to talk to them later.

"Wait. So you know about the Romans?" Hera asked, "How?"

"It will probably be revealed in the book, so can we read?" Dionysus said, wanting to get this over with.

"Ok." Hestia replied, opening the book.

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," **Hestia read.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at Percy, who in return was looking at everywhere but at her.

** I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. **

"Ah, I love the Mist." Thalia said.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. **

"Maybe cuz you are." Nico said, receiving a salt-water bath after he said that.

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed. **

**Almost. **

"25 drachmas it's Grover." Apollo said to Hermes.

"Deal."

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. **

Apollo earned 25 more drachmas that day.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. **

"No. Really?" Leo said sarcastically.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat. **

Percy shivered. He remembered when he would wake up, her nails less than an inch away from his throat.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

Everyone glared at Poseidon.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. **

Now everyone glared at Zeus.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

_I'm glad none of my daughters are dating him _Athena thought_. _Oh the irony...

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was to lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him a old sot.**

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Annabeth laughed. "You called him an old drunkard." And with that, everybody started to laugh.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Wimp." Ares said.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

All the goddesses cooed, minus Athena, Hera, and Artemis.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. **

**I'd miss Grover, ****who'd been a good friend,**

Grover smiled.

** even if he was a little strange.**

Grover's smile fell off his face.

Percy just smiled. "Sorry." though it came out as a question.

** I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

Aphrodite cooed.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exams got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"You wanted to impress him, didn't you?" Travis asked.

Percy nodded.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology**_** across my dorm room.**

Annabeth glared at him.

"I'm sorry. I was frustrated." Percy said, "Please forgive me."

He put on a cute pouty face, just like a cute baby seal **(A/N: MOA reference anyone?)** while everyone else was snickering. Athena was thinking of talking to Annabeth later about this.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"You do now." Leo said.

Poseidon paled.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"Such weird thoughts you have, Peter." Dionysus said.

"Your listening?" Thalia asked, surprised.

Dionysus replied, "Of course, I want to see if I'm gonna still be at that rotten camp."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I never asked a teacher for help before.**

"Maybe that's why you get bad grades." Rachel said.

Percy stuck his tongue out at her.

Nico gasped. "How dare you stuck your tongue out at her!"

The Stolls and Leo started to laugh while everyone just chuckled.

** Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

"I bet he knows that you tried." Piper said to Percy, who smiled in return.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

"You're gonna eavesdrop, aren't you?" Artemis asked Percy.

He just smiled.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

Everyone who knew him scoffed.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"You do have a point there..." Thalia said.

**I inched closer.**

"**... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! Now that we know for sure, and **_**they**_** know too—"**

"**We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"When is_ that_ gonna happen?" Jason asked.

"Never" Thalia said.

Everyone laughed.

"**But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—"**

_What's the summer solstice deadline? _Artemis thought.

As if Athena read her mind, she repeated the same question out loud.

"Can't tell you." Percy said, while pretending to zip up his mouth and throw the key away.

"**Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

"**Sir, he **_**saw**_** her..."**

"Yes, I did." Percy said, real slowly which made everyone laugh.

"**His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"**Sir, I... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was chocked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

"You didn't fail Grover. I told you that already." Thalia said to Grover.

"**You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"And you gave away your position." Hermes said, disappointed.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"At least you didn't get caught." Jason said.

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop**_**, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

"So it _is _Chiron. Pay up." Apollo said to Hermes.

Apollo earned 50 more drachmas that day.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since winter solstice."**

"**Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could of sworn..."**

**"Go back**** to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"**Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's room.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

"**You look awful," he frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"**Just...tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't see my expression,**

Annabeth started to say something but Percy cut her off.

"I know. I didn't know he was a satyr back then, though." he whispered to her.

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"But you didn't." Leo said, confused.

"Of course he didn't Leo, but he wants to, as said in book, _believe _that he imagined it." Rachel replied.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

Nico scoffed, "He's always in some kind of danger."

Poseidon paled, but remembered that they were from the future and his son was with them.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

All of a sudden, they heard a _thud _and saw Leo passed out on the floor.

"Uhhhh, is he okay?" Hermes asked.

Then, Leo woke up, saying "Guys, I had this weird dream that Percy took a three-hour Latin exam."

"That wasn't a dream, Leo." Annabeth said. And at that, he passed out again.

"Oh gods." Piper said while everyone else rolled their eyes.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"**Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... it's for the best."**

"He's not gonna like that." Thalia said.

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Everyone clenched their fists. They _really _didn't like that girl.

**I mumbled, "Yes, sir."**

"**I mean..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp." Ares muttered.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"**Right," I said, trembling.**

"**No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say...you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"**Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

"**Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"Told ya." Thalia said.

"We know Thalia, we're not dumb." Travis said.

"I don't know about you though." she replied.

Everyone laughed.

**On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich**_** juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Do we _look_ like a bunch of nobodies?" Zeus asked.

"No, but I didn't know about you guys." Percy said.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"**Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

"At least one of them is nice." Aphrodite said.

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Never mind." Aphrodite said.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"That was _so _not a coincidence." Nico said.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You nearly gave me a heart attack." Grover said.

"Sorry." Percy replied.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exams.**

"You shouldn't confess!" Hermes and the Stolls said at the same time.

Like father, like sons." Percy muttered under his breath.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"**Oh... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"You do know that was basically the whole conversation, right?" Jason said to Percy.

He just smiled sheepishly.

**He winced. "Look, Percy... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers..."**

"**Grover—"**

"**And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no person as Mrs. Dodds, and..."**

"**Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"You got better though." Percy said, trying to cheer him up. Fortunately, it worked.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why are they in fancy script?" Demeter asked.

"It's fun watching them try to read it." Dionysus said.

"Change it."

"Fine." Dionysus snapped his fingers. "There."

**but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

"**What's Half—"**

"**Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um... summer address." **

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Why?" Rachel asked Percy.

He just shrugged.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or... or if you need me."**

"**Why would I need you?"**

"That was rude." Hera said.

**It came harsher than I meant it to.**

"Sorry." Percy said.

"Nah, it's alright." Grover said.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. **

"Awww!" Aphrodite said.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me**_**.**

"**Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"A bunch of monsters who want to kill you and pissed off Gods."

Poseidon began to feel scared. What had his son done to do this?

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.**

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

_It couldn't be, could it? _Almost all the Gods thought.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cinder in a claw-foot tub full of ice.**

**There was no customers, just three old ladies in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Everyone's eyes widened. Annabeth was trying to keep her anger in, so the Gods, especially her mother, wouldn't become suspicious. It was not working well.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Percy felt sad, remembering that wasn't his string, but Luke's. Annabeth wanted to comfort him, but she was mad and didn't want the Gods to become suspicious.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Annabeth couldn't take it anymore.

"YOU SAW THE FATES AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" She yelled at Percy.

"I didn't want to yell at me, like now." he replied.

She sat back, still mad.

Athena couldn't do anything but think that they were dating. _No, my daughter wouldn't date a sea spawn like him. _And she shook that thought out of her head. Again, oh the irony.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"**Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

"**Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

"**Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"**Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard my Grover catch his breath.**

"**We're getting in the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

"Listen to him, Percy." Poseidon mumbled.

"**What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"**Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I heard that **_**snip**_** across four lanes of traffic.**

Everyone fell silent. The Gods felt sorry for Poseidon, while the demigods, except the Roman, looked down, knowing that was Luke's string.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could be possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

"**Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

_It's already starting. _Poseidon thought.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth chattering.**

"**Grover?"**

"**Yeah?"**

"**What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

"**You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"They are way worse." Annabeth whispered to Percy.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"**The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

"**Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

"**This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

"It was not your fault." Thalia said to Grover.

"I know that now."

"**What last time?"**

"**Always sixth grade. They never get pass sixth."**

"**Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"**Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"**Is this superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

"**Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"And that's the end of that." Hestia said, "Who wants to read?"

"I will." Thalia said.

* * *

**And that's it for this chapter.**

**Question time: You know how Frank is a legacy of Poseidon? Well, can you be a legacy of two Gods?**

**R&R.**


	4. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**Hey Guys, I'm back!**

**Thanks to all of you who answered my question! Love you all :)**

**Disclaimer: Me: Thalia, get over here!**

**Thalia: Sup Mila.**

**Me: Can you do the disclaimer for me?**

**Thalia: What if I don't wanna?**

**Me: Then I'll bring out Nico and I swear on the River Styx *Thunder boom outside* that I will make him annoy you for a month.**

**Thalia: *mutters* Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning.**

**Me: What was that?**

**Thalia: Nothing. Mila does not own PJO, Rick Riordan does. Happy?**

**Me: Very.**

**Hope you like it!**

* * *

** _Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants_**

Thalia grabbed the book and flipped to the right page.

**"Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants," **Thalia said.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"Why would you do that?" Hera asked.

"He was freaking me out." Percy replied.

**I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out,**

"You don't need to repeat yourself, Percy." Travis said with a smirk.

"Oh shut it, Stoll." he snapped.

** looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"Okay, that would freak me out too." Rachel said. The rest of the demigods nodded in agreement.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

The Stolls and Leo snickered.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

Travis and Connor glanced at each other.

"Dont even think about it, Stolls. We moved anyways." Percy said.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Best mom."

"Amazing"

"Sweet"

"Makes awesome cookies."

Everyone looked at Nico.

"What? It is a _fact _that Mrs. Blofis makes the best blue cookies in the world."

"It's true. Sally does make good cookies." Annabeth said.

Athena wondered why Annabeth called her Sally while Nico called her Mrs. Blofis. On the other hand, Poseidon was shocked. Sally married another man? He knew she was married to that pig Gabe but something must of happened so he just hoped that her new husband treated her right.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

Some people frowned.

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five,**

Cue glares at Zeus, who looked at the floor.

** and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"That is just so sad." Hestia said.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

Aphrodite cooed.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

"I visited you when you were a baby." Poseidon admitted.

Percy smiled.

** My mom doesn't like to talk about him because **_**it **_**makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"A lie but not a lie. Poseidon how did you get this woman.?" Hermes asked.

"I just got lucky."

_Of course _Athena thought.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"You're _not _an easy kid." Thalia said.

Percy just did the most manly thing and stuck his tongue out.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano,**

Percy clenched his fists.

** who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, ****then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

The girls and goddesses wrinkled their noses.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Ewwww." Aphrodite said while Piper said, "Gross."

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"That was it? No welcome back, good to see you, or how has your life been the last six months?!" Leo exclaimed.

**That was it. No **_**Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life **__**been the last six months?**_

Everyone laughed while Leo paled.

"Sorry, Leo but you're a lost cause." Jason said, teasing him.

Leo dramatically fell to his knees and yelled, "Why me?!"

"Just get up Leo." PIper said, rolling her eyes.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

**(A/N: Perseus Jackson Rules inspired me to do this so this chapter is dedicated to him) **Everyone looked at Percy, who was looking down.

"Percy. Did he ever hit you?" Annabeth said quietly.

He didn't respond.

"Percy." Annabeth said, more clearer.

Percy mumbled something no one could hear.

Annabeth sighed and took his face in her hands, making him look at her. No one, not even Athena, commented about the gesture.

"Percy, please tell me." she said in a concerning voice.

Percy hesitated, then finally said, " AT night when my mom was at work, he and his buddies would always hit me and call me things like weak and useless." A tear slid down his cheek. He took her hands away from his face and looked back down.

All the demigods were angry. He wasn't a weakling or useless. Without him, the gods would have been overthrown by Kronos in the future.

Annabeth, not even caring what her mother have said, hugged Percy. She felt her shirt getting wet, probably from tears, but she let it pass. HEr mother raised an eyebrow at her and in her mind her mother said _We going to talk later. _but she ignored it. Annabeth mouthed _Just read _to Thalia.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

_That must have been what was covering his scent all these years. _Athena thought.

Annabeth whispered to Percy, who was still being hugged by her, "Was that why monsters didn't come after you?"

Percy slightly nodded. " You can let go of me now."

Blushing, she let go of him, only to find him putting his head in her lap, not even caring about the people watching them.

"Oh Seaweed brain." she said, playing with his hair.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least he's decent." Connor said.

**"Am I **_**right**_**?**_**" **_**Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Never mind."

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"He did a great job." Percy mumbled. Annabeth smiled at this and continued playing with his hair.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,**

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

Everyone smiled.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

"Awww." Aphrodite and almost every other goddess, besides Artemis and Hera, said.

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

"Wow. She's good." Nico said, jokingly.

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"Lucky." the Stolls and Leo complained.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

_Mama's boy _Ares thought.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

As did everyone in the room.

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"If she married a millionaire, maybe she would have never have met Paul." Nico said.

"True." Percy replied.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a ****good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"You should never lie." Hermes said.

Everyone looked at him, shocked.

"To your mom I mean. You shouldnt lie to your mom." He corrected.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

"You really love that cabin, don't you?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah."

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

"Yeah right." Jason muttered.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**I wanted to punch him,**

"Do it." Ares said.

** but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

_Jerk_ Poseidon thought.

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"WHAT! That is not fair. There should _never_ be a clothes budget." Aphrodite said.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

Everyone laughed.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

Some people chuckled.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,"**

"He's not brain boy." Thalia said.

"Yeah!" Percy exclaimed, "wait. Hey!"

** he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

Some people frowned at this.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. **

Everyone started laughing at this. It took a few minutes for them to calm down.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

"How come there's not any spiders when I go there." Annabeth asked.

"I clean the cabinets so you don't have a panic attack when you see a spider." Percy simply replied.

Athena was wondering how close they were, almost like they were-_Stop that _Athena thought. _They must have just been through a lot. _She difinitely was going to have a talk with her daughter later on.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

**I loved the place.**

"Of course you did." Grover muttered.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"Aww." Piper cooed.

"I swear, everyday you're becoming more like your mother everyday." Leo told her.

_SMACK! _

"Continue Thalia." Piper said while Leo was rubbing his now red cheek.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" Hades asked.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"Please." Hades said.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

"You have a _way _bigger streak than your mom." Rachel said.

"I know that now." Percy said, still in Annabeth's lap, not even caring about the glares he was getting from Athena.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

_And she did _Percy thought happily.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"He's like a mini Poseidon." Travis blurted out.

Everyone looked at him weirdly.

"He does have a point though." Connor said.

Everyone looked at Percy and then at Poseidon.

Everyone agreed.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me?**

"Everything's great about you, Seaweed Brain. That's why I love you." Annabeth whispered to Percy, so only he could hear.

Percy smiled at her. "I love you too, Wise Girl." he whispered back.

** A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon was about to say something but Percy cut him off. "Dad. It's not your fault. You don't have to say your sorry. "

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"That was rude. You should never say that to your mom." Hera said.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

_Good _Hera thought.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I **_**have **_**to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

"No you're not, Percy." Nico said, teasingly.

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"Almost all the monsters, titans, and gods known to man, but no pressure or anything." Leo said sarcastically.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head. **

"You sent a Cyclops after him." Apollo asked.

"I just wanted to keep an eye on him." Poseidon replied.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Just like Hercules." Hermes said.

"Don't ever compare me to that jerk ever again." Percy said. Ever since he'd known what Hercules done to Zoe, he hated him.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. ****But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"You should've told her anyways." Hestia said.

Percy just shrugged, which looked pretty weird since he was _still _in Annabeth's lap.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

"CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" Leo and the Stolls yelled. Everyone else just smiled.

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

_It's more than a summer camp _Percy thought. _It's basically a second home to me._

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream.**

All the demigods groaned.

"Your nightmares are the worst Percy." Thalia complained.

The gods were curious. How bad can his dreams be?

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

Athena started thinking. _What was Zeus and Poseidon fighting about this time? _But then, she started to put the pieces together. _Zeus...title of book...lighting thief _ Athena's eyes widened. She looked at Percy and all he did was give her a barely noticed nod. She decided not to say anything.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everyone looked at Hades.

"What?"

No one bothered to answer him.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, **_**No!**_

"Ha! I win." Zeus said.

"Whatever." Poseidon said, rolling his eyes.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he** **wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ares asked.

_Idiot _thought Hephaestus whole Artemis thought _Boys_

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

_**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" **_**he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you **_**tell **_**her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

"Hey! Now I understood the title." Connor said.

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

"What about his legs?" Travis asked, impatiently.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: **_**"Percy. **_**Tell me **_**now**_**!"**

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. **_**Go**_**!**_**"**_

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"And that's that." Thalia said, closing the book.

"I think it's time for you guys to go to bed. It's almost midnight." Aphrodite said.

"Already?" Piper said, surprised.

"Well, you guys came here pretty late." Demeter said.

"Hermes, show them to the guest rooms down the hall. We will continue in the morning." Zeus said.

Hermes stood up and left, the demigods right behind him.

* * *

**Like it?**

**Can you believe the Sea of Monsters movie is coming out in 3 DAYS?! I'm like freaking out. :) **

**Next week, my mom and I are gonna go to New York and we are gonna go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The one that Percy goes to where he vaporizes Mrs. Dodds. I'm so happy!**

**R&R.**


End file.
